MILTON — Santa Rosa County has multiple animal advocacy groups trying to better the welfare of animals in the county. Three people in the county working towards the common goal of making things better for pets and animals. One is a career county employee, one a driven and dedicated champion of stray animals and one is a 12-year-old sixth grader from King Middle School.
Brad Baker, director of public safety, has oversight of the county's animal services department. Baker identified changes that would improve animal services and set about enacting them. He met with animal advocacy groups on Sept. 6, to find out which issues were most important to them.
"The biggest concern was breed discrimination," Baker said. The animal services department had a policy of not adopting dogs labeled as dangerous or aggressive breeds such as chows, pitbulls and rottweilers. These breeds, per policy would be euthanized without ever being considered for adoption. The public never saw these dogs. An internal policy, Baker was able to change it.
In addition, Baker and county staff are going to review animal ordinances and go about the process of changing them if it helps the animals.
The change requires animal control personnel to base the adopt-ability of a dog on the animal’s temperament and history. If a surrendered pit bull has a bite history, it will not be adopted regardless of the lifting of breed discrimination.
"We need to adopt more pets," Baker said. "We have to fix things here."
One way to speed adoptions is to hire a part-time veterinarian that can provide health checkups on intake animals and give shots as required, according to Baker. He's seeking one now and will present his results at the Oct. 8 commission meeting.
Baker also wants to create a volunteer and foster program. Once in place, the animal would get a physical then sent to a foster care home for the required 5-day waiting period before adoption. Baker said that would reduce the stress on the animal and free up space in the shelter.
Then there is the partnership Baker wants to develop with shelters across the country. Some areas of the country need animals for adoption. This collaboration would allow Santa Rosa to send animals to other parts of the country reducing overcrowding, euthanasia rates, and freeing up space at the facility.
Baker said he has good working relationships with animal advocacy groups in the area and plans on meeting with them regularly.
Baker is also looking for a local veterinarian to perform low-cost spaying and neutering.
"The solution is spay and neutering," Baker said. However, he stops short of supporting the Trap Neuter Release (TNR) program. Just reviewing the ordinance to allow TNR with county staff could take as much as six months, Baker said.
Brandi Winkleman with the nonprofit A HOPE for Santa Rosa County is a TNR advocate. Winkleman, president of the group, wants all cat lovers to email their commissioners and ask them to change the ordinance and allow TNR throughout the county.
Winkleman has started the "thousand-cat campaign." Her goal is to get one thousand cats spayed or neutered at the cost of $25 per cat. Winkleman works with the low-cost Spay Bay clinic in Panama City to perform the surgeries, and her group was one of 25 that received a $25,000 grant to use solely for TNR. The $25 pays for vaccinations, ear tipping, microchip, and the surgery.
Winkleman has arranged a shelter review of the Milton facility by Team Shelter USA, a $30,000 value at no cost to the county. The review is on the schedule for the end of the month.
TNR works, according to Winkleman and said it has been proven throughout the country. TNR works by trapping feral, stray and community cats then getting them spayed and neutered and returning the cats to the original territory the were trapped. Eventually, the population decreases because the cats in the colony cannot reproduce. That reduces intake to the shelter, which reduces euthanasia.
In 2017, Santa Rosa County led the state in euthanasia at 66.57 percent. Winkleman has been vocal about implementing a TNR program to lower that number. County commissioners have been cautious in response. Allowing TNR would require a change in county ordinance, a lengthy process requiring public forums, reviewing a new ordinance and voting. Commissioners have opted to study the results of Milton's TNR program, the only area in the county that has adopted this program.
As it happens, both Baker and Winkleman inspired a King Middle School 12-year-old to pursue educating people on stopping animal abuse. Becca Shaw started the Animal Protection Program, known as APP.
Shaw said she and her friend Leah Hatfield were talking about the breed discrimination lift implemented by Baker. The more they talked the more Shaw wanted to get involved. Shaw ended up taking control of the group.
"I was excited that she wanted to start the club," said Katherine Shaw, Becca's mother. "I wanted her to do the leg work, to see if she really wanted it."
The only suggestion her mother made after her daughter created the group, found a sponsor, and created a PowerPoint presentation for the first meeting was to invite a guest speaker. That speaker turned out to be Winkleman. The meeting was beneficial for both Shaw and Winkleman.
"Meeting such an awesome little girl like Becca will allow us to educate young people in animal advocacy through her group and the schools," Winkleman said. As for Shaw, she gets a mentor. The two have already started planning fundraisers and volunteer work with other animal rescue organizations.
At the next APP meeting, Shaw and her group will paint portraits of adoptable animals. The portraits will be sold at the Barktoberfest event on Oct. 27, at Maritime Park in Pensacola.
Shaw held her first APP meeting Sept. 26, at King Middle School after class with 15 students in attendance along with teacher and sponsor Joni Edmunson. APP's goal is to help prevent animal abuse, and to encourage people to report it when they see it. Shaw's definition of abuse includes physical beating to not feeding them.
- Escambia – 46.11%
- Santa Rosa – 66.57%
- Okaloosa – 30.92%
- Walton – 45.04%
2017 Euthanasia rates in northwest Florida
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Animal advocacy is alive and well in Santa Rosa County